First Hive Inspection Of Squill 5-6-12

May 15, 2012by Anita Deeley

First hive inspection reveals Squill is off to a good start!

Three weeks afterinstalling his bee package, Brian finally got to inspect his hiveSquill.These bees took a while towarm up to the queen, so Brian was wondering if she was in there and laying or if the girls had decided to reject her and had either killed or superceded her. Pollen was going in the hive which is usually a good indicator of brood and a happily laying queen (although not definite).

Upon opening the hive, Brian was very happy with what he saw. Seven frames of wax were being drawn out on wax foundation frames. Four frames were filled with capped brood and the queen had an excellent laying pattern. There was pollen and capped honey in the hive. On one of the frames, the wax was chewed around the bottom and sides and it looked very similar to thefoundationless frames in Willow.

Brian also noticed his marked queen had paint all over one wing. Someone got creative and colored outside the lines when painting her. I wonder if this will affect her ability to fly? Does anyone know? All in all this was a great inspection and a relief to see that although this hive was off to a bumpy start everything is now moving along smoothly.

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Anita Deeley is a biologist and former state bee inspector who maintains 100 honey bee hives. She is the beekeeper, writer, owner and creator of BeverlyBees.com. When she is not spending time with her girls (the bees), she enjoys being a wife to her beekeeping cohort, Brian and mother to 3 little boys (the beekeepers in training). Read more about Anita here >>
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Hives do great on rooftops! If the surface is black you will want to do something to cover it up to reduce the heat. The first few feet above the black rooftop get very hot and may be 50 degrees or more hotter than the outside temps. Simply changing the color decreases the heat tremendously. Some people paint the rooftops, some cover them around the hives (mine is covered with white panels, some people use astroturf). Also you need to worry about wind on buildings and probably want some type of wind break to help the bees, especially in winter, because it can get very windy up there. Access may also be an issue for roof top hives, do you have to climb up a ladder or do you have a door to the roof. Hive boxes can be heavy and carrying them down a ladder is hard, I do that, but not everyone would want to. Good luck!

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